Digital Bob Archive

OCTOBER 5, 1880-Yesterday two Sitka prospectors, Richard R. Harris and Joseph Juneau, accompanied by Chief Cowee of the Auks, followed Gold Creek to a point near the first falls. They then climbed over a shoulder of the mountain on the right and descended by a ravine they named Quartz Gulch. In the gulch they found quantities of decomposed quartz carrying good values in gold. They claimed a discovery and staked two discovery placer claims and two preemption placer claims for themselves. They then staked a placer claim for each George E. Pilz and N. A. Fuller, the two Sitka men who grubstaked them for the prospecting trip. They then descended to the bottom of the gulch where a circular valley was named by Harris Silver Bow Basin. There they camped for the night.

This morning a miners? meeting was held to establish the mining district, which was named for Harris. He had brought a blank book from Sitka and in it he recorded the claims. Near the original discovery on the side of the hill, which they called Juneau Hill, they staked two additional placers for themselves. In the basin itself they staked four additional placer claims for themselves and six other claims, one each for Mike Gibbon, John McKinnon, William Moore, Pat McGlinchy, Thomas Mooney and William M. Bennett. These are all friends of the two prospectors and most of them have been prospecting for Pilz in Southeastern Alaska. In all, 18 placer claims were located by the two men.

There seems little doubt that Harris and Juneau have made a real discovery, the first solid gold discovery in this area. The two men were here last August and followed the creek which they then named Gold Creek, for some distance and found values of ten cents to the pan in the creek and some good float quartz. For reasons that have not been fully explained, they failed to follow up their find at that time. They did report it to Pilz and he sent them back here, apparently at the urging of Cowee. Pilz had promised a reward to any Native who helped with a gold discovery.

The validity of claims staked for absent friends, contrary to the rules of most western mining districts, may raise some questions later on when other miners arrive on the scene, as they undoubtedly will.